Donington Open

Very very sorry Claudio, thought you were giving me that inside and then it felt like you were going back into turn. I got on my brakes too late and nearly pulled my wheel off the mount ahhhh! I messed up both our races, really sorry.

I was in third at the time had a shot for top 3, damn.
Hey Richard Floer, that was an awesome first stint, I was sweating like a government mule at work! Good driving, look forward to the next one!

Wow, surprised again to get a win today. My wife and I had planned a weekend trip up to Oregon this weekend and she informed me yesterday that we had to postpone for 2 weeks so I logged on this morning to see what events I could jump into. I saw this one starting in 45 minutes but the grid was full and I joined anyway.

I had a old setup from Donny National so I loaded that up and started warming up with full tanks. Car was extremely loose and wear on the rear's were so high that I didn't think a one stop race would work. Then Ari and Donato joined the server and immediately were faster than me so I started tweaking trying to find some speed. This distracted me and I forgot to pay attention to particulars like fuel milage and race strategy. Before I knew it it was qual.

I ran 3 laps in the 34's and was fastest by just a couple tenths when I jumped in for new tires rejoining with just enough time for one flyer, turns out I didn't need it but I did a 34 flat to secure pole.

Room went to warm up and I went out for a smoke returning to find a wet race condition. I had no clue about tires so I just threw on hard wets all around and joined the grid.

T1 the car just slid forever and I just managed to keep it on the pavement but Ari easily got through and for the next lap or two was pulling away from me. My front end just had no grip with the hard wets and I was already giving up on the win when Ari spun out in the chicane and I was gifted the lead with a comfortable margin over George.

A few laps later I saw my gap was shrinking rather quickly and I saw that Mark Carty was ahead of George. He was closing so fast that I thought maybe he was in the G2 class. Finally he caught me and I could see he was in a Z3 so I just tried to occupy the apexes knowing he couldn't pass me on any straights. This worked for a few laps and he made a mistake giving me some breathing room again but he soon closed back up again but then suddenly pitted, quite early I thought. Maybe he spun at the final turn?

Know I had a large lead over GP and Ari but I was concerned about my strategy. I had only allowed for 60 liters on my stop and it was clear I would need more than that. Then my crew ignored me lap after lap and this was throwing my concetration off not to mention my tires were shot and I was lapping 3-5 seconds off my best lap. I was figuring I would have to wait until the game told me to pit before the crew would be ready but they finally acknowledged me about 6 laps after my first request.

I pitted and took 80 liters (way too much) and rejoined with 18 seconds in my pocket. My earlier concern about Mark passing me on the pit stops were gone as he had disconnected from the server. The rest of the race I just had to keep the car on the track.

Grats to all that finished today.

First, my qual sucked. I really should have done a 33 but I didn't.

I got the lead when Kent ran wide but soon I screwed it up. Only late in the race did I get past George to 2nd place but I didn't feel like I really deserved it, considering how many times I lost the rear under turn-in. I guess I should have tested a few laps in wet, at the very least.

Congrats to Xavier and Kent.